Re: Localization strategies?
Re: Localization strategies?
- Subject: Re: Localization strategies?
- From: Kyle Sluder <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:59:20 -0600
On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Ricky Sharp <email@hidden> wrote:
> (1) Have separate nibs for each language. I agree with those that say you cannot have a one-size-fits-all layout. Each nib will thus carry layout, font size, style, etc. that makes sense for a particular language.
Luckily this isn't always necessary. But there's no substitute for when it is.
> (2) Externalize all strings from the nibs and put them into Localizable.strings. This allows me to have a single file to hand off to translators. I can also group like-items together and fill in nice contextual comments.
This shouldn't be necessary; see man ibtool for arguments you can use
to generate strings files from your nibs automatically.
> (3) For runtime creation of fonts (e.g. boldSystemFontOfSize), call into my special "Font" factory. I ended up creating a "fonts.plist" localized file. Each version will contain two attributes per key (font size and whether or not its bold). At runtime, I now read in the appropriate plist and gather the metrics for the fonts I need to create.
Eeeenteresting.
> (4) Leverage my existing automated-test infrastructure to do a full product walkthrough (setting up proper data along the way) and generating screen-shots. Such screen shots can now be viewed by the localization company's "QA" team to ensure all text is valid within its context.
>
> Furthermore, the "walkthrough" script will mine all text on the screen and look for curly braces. That will mean that either an outlet isn't connected or its localized string key is either missing or malformed.
Also eeeeenteresting.
> * No plural forms (while allowing plurals can be handled, it's not worth the effort IMO)
Don't cop out with text like "One or more items…" or "There are 5
document(s) open." That looks unprofessional and very un-Mac.
> * No fragmented sentences (i.e. pieces of sentences across multiple UI elements)
Is this going to work in Preference panes? If you're already going the
multiple-nib route, does doing this really pose a problem?
> * No hardcoded ordering of parameters. i.e. template strings like "Blah {0} blah {1}." may be "{1} blah blah {0}" in other languages. Each placeholder is always matched to the appropriate vararg argument.
NSString has support for this with the syntax "Blah %1$@ blah %2$@".
Bizarrely, it starts at 1, not 0.
My $0.02.
--Kyle Sluder
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